"Why, God"?

In case you have missed it, here is a very good column by Maureen Dowd, of the New York Times, conveying the message of a friend of hers, a priest.

"Why, God?"

It struck a chord with me, not because of its tone and intelligent compassion, but because of these words (all the highlights are mine, not the author's):

One true thing is this: Faith is lived in family and community, and God is experienced in family and community. We need one another to be God’s presence. When my younger brother, Brian, died suddenly at 44 years old, I was asking “Why?” and I experienced family and friends as unconditional love in the flesh. They couldn’t explain why he died. Even if they could, it wouldn’t have brought him back. Yet the many ways that people reached out to me let me know that I was not alone. They really were the presence of God to me. They held me up to preach at Brian’s funeral. They consoled me as I tried to comfort others. Suffering isolates us. Loving presence brings us back, makes us belong.         

These words, especially those highlighted ones, reflect a truth I've come to know. I know they are true by the very absence of such love in my life at the time when I needed it the most. My family and friends - but mostly my family - on whom I had always relied without questioning our "communion" and their unconditional love, let me down in the most unimaginable way possible.

It was that, and nothing else, that caused me to lose the faith that had been my wings throughout my dazzling, unusual, mostly wonderful life. 
(N. B. Reader, you most likely haven't the slightest idea of what exactly I am talking about here, so refrain from judgement - not for my sake, but for your own.)

But I haven't given up hope of regaining it.
Without it, I am as good as dead.
We all are.


All the best, whoever you are, wherever you are.
May everything you wish for others come true for you. ;)



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Greetings to the Unknown Human (and non-human, too)